No questions. Just thought to share.


I knew I had a hole underneath my gas pedal as I could feel it while driving. Lifted my floor mat and saw that I could see through to the ground. It wasn't until I started pulling up the actual flooring that I saw just how bad it was!

This made a real difference in how quiet, warm, and dry my ride is in the morning.

 

Excellent repair there, i love seeing a work well done, what is that white insulation?.

 

Thanks. I wanted to be sure that if I was going through the work, I was only going to have to do it once. It's great being able to feel a solid floor under my foot again.

It's actually taken a little getting used to while driving it, since my foot is a good 2 - 3 inches higher than it used to be, so my angle on the gas pedal has a totally different feel to it.



The white insulation is something I picked up from the fabric store. I went there looking for a wool blanket or something I could just lay down under there for the time being, and they had rolls of a foam/insulation for use in RVs and boats. It was about $7 for that whole section and it fit really well. If I was to do it again, I'd have gotten 1/4" instead of 1/2". It's a little thick, and made putting some of it back together (like trim, etc.) a little bit difficult.

 

That is a nice job. Did you just rivet it on there? Looks great, also where'd you get your pan from?

 

I used self-starting sheet-metal screws. They were a lot easier to use than rivets, and made the job a lot quicker. I wanted to weld it, but didn't have access to one, so this worked great for what it was.


JC-whitney had the plate for $32 with $12 shipping. Not too bad considering how big of piece of sheetmetal it was.

 

GREAT repair job!

 

I'm fixin' to do the same thing to my Bronco except the floor's not quite as bad and I've got a welder to play with. Plus another spot in the back and a couple of little ones up front on the pass. side.

It had the factory black rubber "carpet" but it was so ratty I chucked it all. I've been watching for someone parting a decent later model to grab the carpet. LMC sells a sweet looking heavy duty molded vinyl piece...for ~$400. Hard for me to justify in a truck I bought for...$400. I could say the same about the ZF tranny, though, and that put me out ~$1,500 all told.

Anyway, you ought to be much more comfortable once winter rolls around.

 

x2 and thanks for the cool pictures too, Abby. :)

All I can say is you guys in the rust-belt are really
dedicated to these old trucks, I don't think I got
that level of dedication. :/

Alvin in AZ
ps- Saw this thread because I search *ZF* on FTE.
pps- http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/file12/hoist7m.jpg

 

Heh, I actually got my '81 for free. But, I've since put around $4000 - $5000 into it over the last 8 years, so it definitely isn't free any more. Worth every penny though.


I'm actually really glad I don't live in the rust belt. This was more of an anomaly, since the rest of the truck is really sound. I'm guessing one of the previous owners somewhere along the way was constantly getting in with wet boots. Who knows, maybe worked in a field or something.
That's about all I can think of, since the rest of it's life it was in the hot desert of Northern California. Not much of a recipe for rust there.

Either way, it's already made a huge difference in my comfort, and just making for a quieter ride!